Punishment Park (1971)

Director:

Peter Watkins

Writer:

Peter Watkins (writer)

Release Date:

1980 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

"Punishment Park" is a pseudo-documentary purporting to be a film crews's news coverage of the team of soldiers escorting a group of hippies...

Plot Keywords:

Desert | Punishment | Anti Establishment | Underground | Capture

Cast

Patrick Boland	...	First Tribunal Defendant
Kent Foreman	...	Defendant in the tribunal
Carmen Argenziano	...	Jay Kaufman, Tribunal Defendant
Luke Johnson	...	Defendant in the tribunal
Katherine Quittner	...	Nancy Smith
Scott Turner	...	James Arthur Kohler, Tribunal Defendant
Stan Armsted	...	Charles Robbins
Mary Ellen Kleinhall	...	Allison Mitchner
Mark Keats	...	William C. Hoeger, Tribunal Chairman
Gladys Golden	...	Mary Jurgens, Tribunal Member
Sanford Golden	...	Sen. Harris
George Gregory	...	Mr. Keagan
Norman Sinclair	...	Alfred J. Sully - Tribunal Member
Sigmund Rich	...	Prof. Hazlett
Paul Rosenstein	...	Paul Reynolds - Tribunal Member

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (video rating) | UK:X | France:-12 | USA:R

Company:

Chartwell

Trivia:

Whole movie was filmed using Eclair 16 mm camera. Theather cut and the version for released DVD is been blown up to 35 mm film.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In her tribunal closing statement, Alison Mitchner makes reference to the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, and uses the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". This phrase is in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.

Quotes:

Charles Robbins: Would you like for me to define what a politician is? A politician is nothing but a debater. All that you do is debate issues, you fat pig, you meathead. That's all that you are, because you are lying, sucker, you're lying to the camera, you're lying to your mama, you're lying to everybody, but every time I hear you open up your mouth, all I hear is oink, you pig. That's all I hear, oink. 'Cause you ain't got no humanity in you, 'cause you're a pig, you lying punk.

I will be shot ...

I will certainly be shot for comparing this with A Clockwork Orange, but so be it. Both from '71, both banned from television (12-June-2001, 15 votes: isn't it wonderful?), both science fiction and both concerned with an authoritative system that is growing out of (moral) proportions, both scary as hell. A major difference is that Punishment Park is intentionally not aesthetically fine-tuned and that the corrective groups have probably never committed any crime at all, while Alex is a recidivist delinquent. They do, as in Clockwork, spout supposed philosophical statements throughout the film. It is an ultra left-wing propagandistic attack on a certain ultra-reactionary system filled with caricatures (absurd loyalty, juvenile soldiers and rednecks) and the Viet Nam war. The dialogues and monologues are eloquent, but I found them sorely myopic and exaggerated.

quote: 'Punishment Park. Described by the US senate subcommittee on law and order as: a necessary training for the law officers and National Garde of the country in the control of those elements who seek the violent overthrow of US government and the means of providing a punitive deterrent aforementioned subversive elements.'

The supposed delinquents can choose between their (severe) penal sentence or three days in Punishment Park, where officers in training may hunt them. We see the interrogations of a new group alternated with footage of a preceding group that is outside in the park fighting for their dehydrated life and to get to the American flag for chauvinistic 'salvation'. This dystopic penal system is the result of the politics of polarization, according to a condemned one. The hand-held cinematography and the minimalist industrial sound track with constant shooting and agony in the background create a sense of realism, AND it's frightening to see how far fantasy can go in a dated film: it's almost post-apocalyptic. What's even scarier, there are parts of the world that apply even more disreputable methods ... today

9/10 (not for the political ideas of course)